Lionel Letcher's blog

It is not uncommon to hear the ‘Word of Faith’ and ‘prosperity’ preachers say things like, “All sickness is of the devil”, “Sin and sickness were defeated at the cross” or “If you just have faith you will be healed”. The intention of such statements is to make the hearers think that sickness is inherently evil in its’ nature, and that the failure to be healed is somehow the fault of the individual with the sickness.

When Paul writes to the Philippian church he commended a fellow-soldier named Epaphroditus. Paul was sending him to the Philippians to minister to them and to comfort them because, “he longed after you all, and was full of heaviness, because that ye had heard that he had been sick.” Then Paul states that “indeed he was sick nigh unto death”, and later “because for the work of Christ he was nigh unto death”.

In examining this text the “faith preachers” will usually point to the fact that Paul states in verse 27 that “God had mercy on him”, with their logic being that ultimately God healed him*. Doubtlessly, that is what Paul is referring to.   Read more

“This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God” II Tim 3:1-4

I recently received an email requesting Christians to pray for Valley Forge Christian College because they have been targeted by Soulforce, a homosexual activist group. Each year Soulforce conducts “The Equality Ride” which targets Christian/religious schools that they deem to be teaching injustice toward homosexuals. They travel to schools and promote their philosophy. There have also been other GLBT (Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender) groups who have invaded churches while in worship in order to disturb the preaching and proclaim their agenda. Though their mistreatment of Christian groups is plainly obvious to everyone, the world mostly says nothing.

Then there is the upsurge of modern-day atheism which is very vocal and self-righteous in proclaiming their message.   Read more

Grace. This is the age of grace, and yet many believers fail to grasp it. The word grace in the New Testament comes from the Greek word, charis, and has several applications:

• Grace is revealed to us in God’s gift of salvation. This is best represented by the idea of God bestowing something upon someone though they did not deserve it. The key passage used to teach this principle is Ephesians 2:8, which states that we are saved by grace. In this passage, charis is usually described as unmerited favour.

• Grace is also God’s favour upon believers in circumstances. Acts 4:33 shows that grace was upon them during a trial and persecution.

A word that is commonly used in conjunction with grace is, mercy.   Read more